Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion

Reading paper for Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion

Arthur gives several reasons why morality is not dependent on religion and vice versa. In his article, he explains why even a theist should not accept the Divine Command theory. The Divine Command theory says, “A thing is not right simply because we think it is…It is right because God commands it.” That statement is an idea expressed by Bishop R. C. Mortimer and concludes that without God’s commands there would be no moral rules. Arthur challenges the Divine Command theory in a way that makes it unacceptable to a religious person and also explains how a theist rejecting the theory can still keep their faith in God.

The Divine Command theory implies that actions are deemed right or wrong because God demanded them as such. The problem with this is that, because God is omnipotent and rightness is determined solely by Him; it is possible that at any given moment he could deem things that are moral and right as of now, as immoral and wrong. Therefore, all of the things that are considered good qualities to humans right now could be turned into things that are seen as immoral. So accepting this theory means accepting that if God commands so, acts that seem horrible now can become morally required by God, and would subsequently be considered acceptable by humans. If God commanded humans to be cruel, they could doubt that he is omnibenevolent.

A religious person might be able to keep faith in God by saying that if He did command horrible things as moral, He could also make it so that the horrible things didn’t matter or were tolerable. In such cases, the best moral code for that time and situation would differ from the best moral codes that exist now. This change would allow the theist to retain their faith in God.